Stephen King frequently writes racist and homophobic ancillary characters, bullies of all ages who use the most severe slurs with abandon. Sometimes it makes me cringe a little, but it's realistic. I kind of wish he wouldn't do it so often, though. In my abandoned book, I have the two MC's leaving a gay club at one point. They're accosted by a couple of protestors that break off from their group to follow them. It never occurred to me to curb the language. These characters would absolutely use the gay F word. Of course, in my case, it's obvious that I'm not on the protestors' side, so no one would think I shared their views or condoned their language. Is the line in question in your story one that someone might confuse for your view?
I'd like to think not... but because its in a conversational context (as opposed to your protest example where there are clear sides) where the character drops the gay F bomb.... I'd rather be on the safe side. (my only personal connection to that shitty character and that word is my brother... my brother and I are two years apart and we went to the same elementary and middle school. I used to hear bullies call my brother that word and hear his friends joke around that he was "acting like a F--".... the shitty character is based off of those people)
Trigger warnings are for overly sensative children who need to grow the fuck up, and learn to deal with the real world. This is especially true when they try to add trigger warnings to historical works the To kill a mocking bird or Tom sawyer. In those cases the offensive words are in historical context and show dramatically how society has changed.
My last novel includes multiple encounters with rattlesnakes. Some people are phobic about snakes. Trigger warning needed? Another story is about rock climbing and people have issues with heights. Trigger warning? Battle scene included. Trigger warning? Character is hassled unmericifully about her weight. Trigger warning? A couple marries and lives happily ever after. Trigger warning because the recently divorced or bereft might be made to feel their situation more painfully by reading about someone else's happiness? Characters are devoted to God and espouse Christian beliefs. Trigger warning for aetheists? The notion of adding trigger warnings to written material is no doubt well-meant, but it looks a lot like the road to literary hell to me. Damn. I wrote hell. Should I have added a trigger warning?
Spoiler: Trigger Warning Gone are the days of "if you don't have anything helpful/useful to say, don't say anything at all"
I tend to think they are like any other warning..its only needed if the 'hazard' isn't reasonably apparent. Someone who buys a book called 'taken by my shape shifting billionaire dragon boss' doesn't need to be warned that the book will contain erotic content including shape shifting bestial reptile sex. On the other hand someone who buys a book called goldilocks and the three bears is going to be justifiably upset if without warning it turns into an ursine four way on page 6
By that logic Moose, Anne Rice should be full of trigger warnings for her Sleeping Beauty series. Funny that the adults, ie those not triggered by sunrise, or thr breeze coming up, simply skimmed past the sections they had no interest in.
If you skim past the hardcore stuff in the Beauty series, you skim the entire series, lol. It's in almost every paragraph.
it literally says in the opening page before the actual story "an erotic novel of tenderness and cruelty for the enjoyment of men and women" may not be a "trigger warning" but it is a clear disclaimer that denotes the genre (erotica) theme (tenderness and cruelty) and audience (men and women). so a 16 year old wanting to read a wholesome retelling of Sleeping Beauty cant claim that they "didnt know" what it was about
I think the problem is trigger warnings don't make sense by severity and personal connection. I never see people talking about how they want to include (or see included) trigger warnings about something universally horrible, say, murder. If consuming media can give someone such an acute degree of suffering, then we should all be triggered by murder. If calling someone a bundle of sticks ranks higher than a killing (or many, many killings that he probably acts out in videogames anyway) in terms of magnitude, the stricken reader needs to stop and re-evaluate his perspective.
I was referring to things like male male sex, or the pony play, ... She covers a very wide range of kink in those books, and many of those kinks appeal to a small audience. The rest skim past the scenes they are not interested in, or are repulsed by. An adult approach, rather than being trigger into s temper tantrum like a 3 yr old.
I feel like your sole purpose on this thread (at least the back half after I asked a valid question), is to derail and pick fights-- trolling-- as evident by your unhelpful and hostile language: If this thread or the very question of trigger warnings triggers you so much, you can take your own advice and skip/move along. you've made your thoughts on the matter clear way back when. thank you for sharing. please close the door behind you on your way out.
I don't really see the point of trigger warnings for books. It's not hard to know what you're getting into and honestly there is often quite powerful writing behind those parts of a story that could have a so-called trigger warning. I would not want a trigger warning attached to my novel even though it is pretty dark and troubling. And that's what makes the story work. I feel like some sort of warning sort of waters it down and that's not what I want. I'm also not worried about finding a publisher for my novel. Yes, it's a disturbing story, but I would like to think it's a good story. I am in no way saying it's going to be easy to find a publisher, but I don't think my content or subject matter is going to hurt me. I did recently submit a short story to a horror anthology. In their guidelines they asked writers to include a trigger warning in the cover letter if necessary. I didn't include that in my cover letter. I mean, it's a horror story, but I didn't really have any graphic scenes or stuff like that. The story as a whole is disturbing, IMO. But I didn't feel like I should say WARNING: This may be unsettling for some readers. I mean I hope it's unsettling for all readers. It's a horror story.
I tend to agree - bogart no longer has the ability to reply to this thread, and if you're reading this Humphrey take it from me that that kind of thing tends to result in a big shiny hammer saying 'here's looking at you kid'... For everyone else let's ignore the trolling and move on with the discussion in an adult manner like the supposed grown ups we are
its unusual for big mainstream trad publishers to use trigger warnings, imo, at least ive not seen many. In general if a book is so explicit that it requires a trigger warning they aren't likely to publish it at all. That said you can as JT mentions in ref of anne rice, they are given to being very clear about what the book is in the blurb and via the cover art etc, more so than some self publishers If your book deals with for example incest and bondage its better to say so in the blurb, than to write a blurb that paints a fluffy picture and then tag an incongruous trigger warning on to the end of it. The other thing to bear in mind is that there are people out there who are determined to be offended, no amount of trigger warnings will stop those people being triggered, its best in general to ignore them
Also since we are in the Trad publishing forum here its important to be clear that trigger warning vs no trigger warning won't be the authors choice..you might get some discussion but ultimately the publisher will decide
I'm sort of ambivalent about warnings on books. I can see both sides of the argument. I wish I'd known that The Bell Jar was going to get graphic with the suicide attempt. I wouldn't have listened to the audiobook while I was driving. I didn't pass out, but I got dangerously light headed and had to pull over. At the same time, my blood phobia is my own problem, and I generally try not to trouble other people with it. I certainly wouldn't push for a mandatory warning just for my sake. I do find it strange that we don't have some sort of rating system, though. Literature is one of the only media consumed by adults and children that isn't rated with warnings. From the public library, I checked out two books with sex scenes in them when I was like 12, because the librarian didn't happen to be familiar with them (or didn't care. I don't know which.) In the 90's, when they were trying to pass the law about the parental advisory stickers on music, people screamed about censorship and slippery slopes. They passed it, and everything was fine. Musicians still put out whatever they want. Nothing was banned, and no further laws were passed. I personally didn't like it, because I was in junior high and didn't want my mother to know that Red Hot Chili Peppers said "fuck" about a hundred times on Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Should we do something similar with books? I don't know. As a parent in the internet age, I can easily and immediately find out if the book my kid wants is appropriate, and I consider that my personal responsibility, not someone else's.
That's the point that occurred to me when reading the latest posts on this thread. If the term "trigger warning" is objectionable, don't call it that, but the blurb generally gives some indication of content, a heads up on what's inside and whether that accords with reader's interest at that moment. I'm not squeamish as a rule, but I will consider the blurb on books that are unfamiliar. There are things I simply don't want to read. Key words will help work out if it's what I'm looking for or able for at any particular time. Reducing the idea to the ridiculous is something of a red herring when the blurb (which isn't deemed objectionable) does exactly what the clumsy term "trigger warning" aims to do. Some publications to which I've submitted request a heads up from submitters if there's particularly sensitive content, while making it clear that it's not beyond their compass, they just want to know what to expect when reading an unknown submission. Personally, I've no difficulty with that position, though, repeating a point from earlier on this thread, prefer the concept of content rather than trigger warning.
@B.E. Nugent -- Maybe you submitted to the same anthology that I did recently. I don't know. That was the only time I have seen this sort of request in writer guidelines about giving them a heads up in the cover letter to anything that could be triggering in the story being submitted. But I wonder what the point is for a publication to request that. I mean they can stop reading at any time. And are they less likely to be interested in stories like that? Are they still going to read and consider those stories that are submitted with trigger warnings in the cover letter? And it's a little unclear to me as to what exactly would need this sort of warning when it comes to submissions. Especially, when it comes to horror publications. I mean, in that category every submission could come with a trigger warning probably. But, again, I did not include anything like that in my cover letter. I also don't want to soften the blow by warning the editors (or readers in general) about what's to come in the story. I think that can take away some of the impact such things can have. Writing about horrible things can make for quite powerful stories. Do you feel like it's necessary for submitters to mention this sort of thing? Have you ever included a trigger warning in a cover letter? If we're talking about horror publications, I would think those editors have seen it all and know what they are getting into when going through the slush pile. I haven't seen a trigger warning on the cover of these publications. So, why would they ask that of submitters? And what sort of impact do you think including a trigger warning in the cover letter has on those submissions?
I've not submitted to horror publications apart from a single flash piece, once only, that didn't require a content warning and was likely to be on the tamer end of their submissions. Readers for publications will often receive hundreds of stories to read, frequently without theme and a single editorial suggestion that those submitting should read their published stories to get a flavour of what's likely to be successful. They, I imagine, are looking to be surprised and excited by work that meets their criteria. Writing can be powerful. It can move hearts and change minds and it does so by taking risk with content and pushing boundaries. If the blurb is likely to contain words such as "harrowing", "unflinching", "graphic", etc, then I think it no harm to just say that in the submission. The only difference it might make is the choice to read first thing in the morning rather than that last one before quitting for the night, but that might not be insignificant. The only story of mine where I attach the heads up is one you read off-site and I just say it contains non-graphic but frank reference to sexual matters and sensitive issues. I don't think that gives too much away, nor is it the reason it hasn't been picked up, though it's currently with 2 publications for a seriously inordinate length of time. Years and years ago I read The Wasp Factory, such a good book with one scene that was entirely unexpected and still makes me ouch when I think of it, but I see no reason for content warning. However, if the blurb on the back of a book or editorial intro in a journal makes reference to an unflinching account of childhood abuse, I can at least make a more informed decision whether or not I'm up for that right now. I'm not sure I've answered your questions but that's my take on the subject. It's not about pandering to the permanently offended, however exaggerated that group might be, but alerting a prospective reader that the content concerns potentially sensitive issues.
I actually do support the use of trigger/content warnings for submissions, regardless of whether the warnings are presented in the publication itself. They can help the journal make sure that each story/poem/whatever gets a fair chance. Say a journal has three first readers. Reader A is a sexual abuse survivor with PTSD who won't read about rape or child abuse because they might trigger a flashback and cause them further psychological damage. Reader B doesn't have a history of trauma, but is sensitive to depictions of violence against animals and has found that they struggle to evaluate stories with that content, even if it's justified. Reader C is an "anything goes" type who enjoys being challenged. By requesting content warnings from submitters, the journal can assign each story to the reader who is best able to give it a fair evaluation.
I just had someone return a CD book they'd just started because there was swearing in the first few minutes of it. The guest said that they never would have checked it out had they known and wished there was a way to know before checking the item out. THAT has never happened before... or maybe i've just never paid attention to it happening before this thread good point about doing something similar.
